COMMON EMOTIONS

What makes us participate? How do we enter an unknown emotional world? How does the performance, as a social ceremony, impact the way we relate to each other? What determines our involvement in it and what control do we have over our emotional self during this act? In her most recent work Common Emotions, Godder was interested in tapping into theses question in relation to how we connect to each other in groups, and how do these common emotions which arise out of this interaction, infiltrate us individuality. By challenging the formal separation between spectators and performers, Godder allows the audience to experience their emotional and performative selves during the show. This proposal suggests an intimacy with the performers and impacts the way by which the work unfolds in real time. All of this raises questions in regards to communal-emotional connectivity and infectiousness, and echoes social and national behavior which we may encounter in our daily lives. One decides whether to watch an aesthetic phenomenon or to experience it with one's own body.

The work Common Emotions was created and researched as part of a larger project called “Störung/Hafra’a” in collaboration with Theater Freiburg. “Störung/ Hafra’a” was a unique collaborative interdisciplinary project that brought together scientists, professional dancers and choreographers, physicians, as well as people with Parkinson’s from Israel and Germany, to explore different aspects of human movement and movement disorder. The project influenced Godder's process of creating Common Emotions in that it opened the door of her studio to different people and communities and used the medium of dance as a means of coming together in a common space. This kind of unexpected intimate meeting in the studio with different communities – through the body and through different methodologies of movement and improvisation– created a desire to offer this experience in a theatrical setting. In her previous work CLIMAX a community is built by the end of the 3 hour durational performance, as the public interacts with the performers and with each other, noticing one another in intimate and intense moments and slowly developing into a group– consciously and subconsciously. In Common Emotions Godder wanted to continue exploring this notion of how we connect in a performance, by proposing different kinds of tasks or actions which happen in real time on the stage in a kind of “secretive area” where the audiences and performers meet. And by then give further emphasis to the process the audience goes through in real time.

What makes us participate? How do we enter an unknown emotional world? How does the performance, as a social ceremony, impact the way we relate to each other? What determines our involvement in it and what control do we have over our emotional self during this act? In her most recent work Common Emotions, Godder was interested in tapping into theses question in relation to how we connect to each other in groups, and how do these common emotions which arise out of this interaction, infiltrate us individuality. By challenging the formal separation between spectators and performers, Godder allows the audience to experience their emotional and performative selves during the show. This proposal suggests an intimacy with the performers and impacts the way by which the work unfolds in real time. All of this raises questions in regards to communal-emotional connectivity and infectiousness, and echoes social and national behavior which we may encounter in our daily lives. One decides whether to watch an aesthetic phenomenon or to experience it with one's own body.

The work Common Emotions was created and researched as part of a larger project called “Störung/Hafra’a” in collaboration with Theater Freiburg. “Störung/ Hafra’a” was a unique collaborative interdisciplinary project that brought together scientists, professional dancers and choreographers, physicians, as well as people with Parkinson’s from Israel and Germany, to explore different aspects of human movement and movement disorder. The project influenced Godder's process of creating Common Emotions in that it opened the door of her studio to different people and communities and used the medium of dance as a means of coming together in a common space. This kind of unexpected intimate meeting in the studio with different communities – through the body and through different methodologies of movement and improvisation– created a desire to offer this experience in a theatrical setting. In her previous work CLIMAX a community is built by the end of the 3 hour durational performance, as the public interacts with the performers and with each other, noticing one another in intimate and intense moments and slowly developing into a group– consciously and subconsciously. In Common Emotions Godder wanted to continue exploring this notion of how we connect in a performance, by proposing different kinds of tasks or actions which happen in real time on the stage in a kind of “secretive area” where the audiences and performers meet. And by then give further emphasis to the process the audience goes through in real time.

“In this mix, which occurs with constant flow, between the the legendary and the now, between dreamlike music and silence, with a shifting reservoir of of participants on stage, present but partially hidden- all this creates a sense of depth and inquisitiveness.” ( Ruth Eshel, Haaretz)

"This work by Godder, is is conducted in the most released spirit, almost effortless, as the characteristic movement of Godder enjoys the excellent performance of Shuli Enosh, Ari Teperberg, Ofir Yudilevitch, Dor Frank, Ayala Frenkel and Uri Shafir” (Ora Brafman, dancetalk.co.il)

"Common Emotions is utopian, insofar as it depends on community ... such a cheerful and at the same time serious evening.” (A. Hoffmann, Badiche Gazette)

“...In Common Emotions are horror and comedy , absurdity and threat , tenderness and monstrosity are all combined together and prove that the Israeli choreographer - in such an unusual performance format - is a master of the grotesque.” (E. Nehring ,deutschlandradio kultur )

Thanks to: Nimrod Levin for scientific advice and inspiration, Michal Oppenheim for vocal coaching, Emmanuel Witzthum for musical consultantation, Monica Gillette and Josef Mackert for their endless support of the work, and all of the audiences who joined us for open rehearsals who helped shape the work.

Partners and Collaborators: COMMON EMOTIONS is co-produced by Theater Freiburg (Germany), Centre chorégraphique national de Rillieux-la-Pape (France),director Yuval PICK and The Diver Festival (Israel). COMMON EMOTIONS was supported by "Störung/Hafraah", a project by Theater Freiburg and Exzellenzcluster BrainLinks-BrainTools of the University of Freiburg, funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation and Stiftung Deutsch-Israelisches Zukunftsforum.